HBO’s ‘Lovecraft Country’ is a Thrilling Ode to Pulp Fiction

HBO’s Lovecraft Country tells you what it is from the jump. We follow Atticus “Tic” Freeman (Jonathan Majors) as he traverses trenches under siege by men, monsters, and aliens. It’s a visual dreamscape of pulp fiction favorites that culminates with none other than Dejah Thoris, Edgar Rice Burroughs’s titular Princess of Mars, coming to Tic’s side. The dream ends abruptly, though. Tic wakes up in the back of a segregated 1950s bus, book in hand, with cruel reality smacking him upside the head.

Lovecraft Country is a show as obsessed with the sometimes goofy hallmarks of genre fiction as it is with the true horrors of America’s past. Sundown towns, slavery, sexual assault, and the genocide of colonization are all treated as monsters as terrifying as the Lovecraftian beasts that also stalk the show’s characters. The fantastical elements are what make Lovecraft Country so damn fun, but the cold hard look at America’s racist past and present are what make it feel so urgent in 2020.

Based on the book by Matt Ruff, Lovecraft Country takes its name from the nickname given to the area of New England horror writer H.P. Lovecraft set most of his stories. However, the HBO show pushes out this meaning to encompass all of the USA, particularly during the height of Jim Crow. For all his contributions to pulp fiction and science fiction writing, Lovecraft is also remembered for his virulent racism. With this in mind, Lovecraft Country sets the kind of thrilling and mind-bending tales Lovecraft was known for through the eyes of the Black Americans already fighting the omnipresent monsters of racism.

Lovecraft Country follows Tic, a sweet science fiction-obsessed nerd, as he returns home to the South Side of Chicago after years serving in the U.S. military. His father Montrose (Michael K. Williams) has gone missing and according to Tic’s beloved uncle, George (Courtney B. Vance), was on the trail of Tic’s deceased mother’s family. With this information in hand, Tic and George set off in their reliable car, Woodie, on an adventure to a mysterious Massachusetts town in the heart of Lovecraft Country.

However, they’re not on the road alone. Joining them is Letitia (Jurnee Smollett), a childhood friend of Tic’s who has definitely noticed that Tic isn’t a scrawny boy in glasses anymore. While Leti ostensibly needs a ride to her brother’s farm, she soon becomes a key part of this intrepid team journeying cross-country with the help of the Green Book George himself wrote. Along the way, the trio are hunted by vindictive racists, a terrifying sheriff, and eventually, yes, monsters.

And that’s just the first episode. Lovecraft Country‘s biggest storytelling twist is that it’s an unconventional series. Each episode feels like its own unique pulp fiction tale. The cast remains the same, but the tone of each episode is totally different. After the straight forward premiere, we dabble in a scary haunted house story, an archaeological adventure in the mold of Indiana Jones, and, naturally, a twisted body horror tale. This conceit allows Tic, Leti, and their friends trade heroic roles all while pulling the audience along on a larger epic story about secret societies and dark magic.

Anchoring all this unconventional storytelling is an incredible ensemble of actors. Fresh off a riveting supporting turn in Da 5 Bloods, Jonathan Majors plays Tic as a an all-American chivalric hero as eager to help carry an older woman’s luggage as he is to bound across a literal abyss to save his love interest. Together Majors and Jurnee Smollett seem to reinvent sex appeal on screen in Lovecraft Country. They are hot, separately and together. Courtney B. Vance provides the moral anchor of the tale: his George is a kind-hearted man, as fond of books as he is his astronomer wife, Hippolyta (Aunjanue L. Ellis). Balancing his energy out is Michael K. Williams’s angry and tortured Montrose. Together the two men represent the light and dark sides within Tic. Other standouts in the cast include Wunmi Mosaku, who plays Leti’s ambitious sister Ruby, and Abbey Lee, the blue-blooded eerily white woman who seems to be toying with Tic’s fate at every turn.

Lovecraft Country is not perfect. It sometimes leans a little too hard into the conventions and clichés of genre storytelling, leaving the show feeling hokey. Also since every episode mines a different pulp fiction motif, the overall plot can feel interrupted. Key details are tossed out with a single establishing line of dialogue or just glossed over, which can give you a sense of whiplash. While the show’s dual focus on genre storytelling and America’s racist legacy might lead you to think that Lovecraft Country is HBO’s natural followup to Watchmen, it reminded me much more of another show from the network: True Blood. Like that hit series, Lovecraft Country revels in supernatural lore, wild twists, and the raw sexual energy of its leads. There’s even a character who looks like a dead ringer for young Alexander Skarsgard on that show.

Lovecraft Country is a pulpy treat: sexy, scary, and featuring a poignant examination of some of the true horrors in American society. While it sometimes undercuts its own seriousness, that’s kind of the point. Lovecraft Country is a love letter to the pulp fiction that H.P. Lovecraft wrote: fun, ferocious, and full of dread.

Lovecraft Country premieres on HBO on Sunday, August 16. 

Where to stream Lovecraft Country